The treadmill

Sunday, June 20, 2010

This week we were blessed to find on craig's list a treadmill being given away. It is a decent treadmill (it has a heart rate monitor and can incline tempo) that has some problems and would quit working on the previous owners.  John tinkered with it and now it works fine.  If  you know John this is great for him since he hates the sun (what red head doesn't) and gyms.  Hopefully we will be able to get some cardio done in our own house.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Okay, so I know everyone has been making their own Laundry Detergent for forever.  I have finally done it, made my own powder laundry detergent.  I found the borax at walmart, but the washing soda and fels-naptha soap could only be found at ace hardware. Next time I may buy some of this stuff online so I don't have to go to a store in the middle of no-where. Mix together:

1 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax
1 bar Fels Naphta Bar Soap (shred with a cheese grater or food processor).

Use 2 tablespoons per load.  Here is a website that has multiple recipes for laundry detergent. Someone calculated that this recipe only costs .02 cents per load.  So far the recipe has been cleaning my clothes good. I also have a high energy front loading washer and have had no problems with this new detergent.

Crepes

Our family birthdays, holidays, and special days growing up always consisted of a marvelous breakfast of crepes. If you have never had crepes they are like thin sweeter pancakes that you fill and roll up like a burrito.  My mom would fill the crepes up with jelly, fresh fruit, and ice cream while topping it with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.  I still love crepes and have taught John how to make them.  Here is a great recipe for crepes:

Makes apprx. Six Crepes
Ingredients:

Crepe;

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1/4 warm water

2 large eggs

2 tblsp melted butter

1 1/2 tblsp sugar

dash of salt

 

Mix all the ingredients in a blender and let it sit covered for about 30 minutes in the fridge.  Take batter and pour into the middle of a greased non-stick pan (smallest will work best) over medium heat.  Pour about 1/4 cup at a time.  Rotate the pan so that the dough spreads out thin and even over the bottom of the pan.  Once solid, and golden on the bottom, flip.Let cook for another minute or so, and remove.  Fill and top with whatever sounds delicious to you.

River Market Date/Vacation Week

Can you call it vacation if you are sick most of the week?  Yeah, fevers and coughing and more.  Oh well, that is life.  We did get the garage cleaned before we got sick. We also got to go to the River Market/Farmer's Market in downtown Little Rock on Tuesday.  This was a first for both of us and was not a bad experience.  We looked through the merchandise and farmers produce for sale-some of it seemed priced a little too high. Inside the River Market building is different ethnic restaurants including: cajun, thai, middle eastern, and etc. John tried the cajun chicken and I had a thai pad.  The cajun food was awesome, my thai pad ended up tasting really bland so I was left wanting more savory food to eat.  We bought cupcakes at the brown sugar store: lemon and red velvet.  They were good but not as good as the cupcakes on Kavanaugh store (which has some amazing flavors).  I do have to say that with almost all meals costing 7 dollars or more that eating at the River Market might be more pricier than an average meal eating out but it is worth it if you want a certain ethnicity. On Saturday I went to the farmer's market in bryant.  There is a farmer's market that runs in Bryant from 8-noon in the middle of a subdivision behind the big tower sign. I was disappointed that there were not that many sellers, and I was even more disappointed to learn that some of the sellers had produce that was from out of state (does this not defeat the purpose of a farmer's market??).   I found one nice couple who sold me fresh bryant grown squash.

The awesome wedding Date

Monday, June 14, 2010

One of my friends from law school got married on Saturday and it was one of the most creative and fun weddings I have ever been to. She got married at the Anthony Chapel in Hot Springs/Garvan Gardens.  The chapel is made of a durable glass and wood it is one of the most beautiful outdoor buildings I have ever seen.  Here is a picture of it from a previous trip:

  

The wedding was perfect and Laura looked gorgeous in her wedding dress.  She and her fiance are outdoors people so their mode of transportation from the wedding chapel to the Hot Springs Country Club was a bass motor boat up the river.  The reception site was beautiful and normal in most regards, but they had some amazing little twists.  First, they had us sign stones that would be in a vase for decoration instead of a book.   Then they had rented a photo booth, like the type you see in the mall, that we got to take 6 pictures in.  They had hats and accessories to silly up the picture.  The picture went into a picture frame and that counted as our wedding favor.  They also had sparklers instead of rice or bubbles to send them away.  We had dancing and I got John to dance with me-amazing.  There were a handful of kids from school and we danced and hung out together. It was just a wonderful wedding with cute twists that made it fun for all invited. What a wonderful date nostalgia, dancing, and fun.

ABA Conference/ Vote Karen Baker

So I recently went this last Wednesday and Thursday to the Arkansas Bar Association's annual meeting in Hot Springs.  I signed up to proctor a room so it ended up being free.  Wednesday I sat in on classes about family law, how the new health care reform will affect AR, and dependency neglect law.  On Thursday I sat in on a motivation speech by Governor Beebe, leadership classes, and how to be a better trial lawyer.  The food was good-a little to much junk food for me to resist the temptation of, and I got to meet and introduce myself to other lawyers.  No I did not find a clerkship, but I did talk to some people about doing work in the next few semester and gained some leads.  The conference was in the Arlington Hotel and the Hot Springs Convention Center.  I had to pick John up late from work so he put in some overtime this week-hehe.  I wish I could have stayed for the mixers at night but I was not going to pay for a hotel room and we only have one car. Speaking of people I ran into at the conference I ran into Judge Baker who I had interned for on the Arkansas Appeals Court.  I was disappointed that she lost her primary election bid for Supreme Court Justice by 1.5% and is now going to have to run again for the position in November.  I encourage all in Arkansas to vote for Judge Baker in November to the Supreme Court. I know I am biased having worked for her, but she is a conservative moderate who has experience and follows the law. 

Bowling Date

A couple of weeks ago John and I began our date nights for the summer. First we went to La Hacienda restaurant in Benton.  The food is good and they have a live mariachi band.  We meet up there with another young couple from church who were also looking for a date night activity.  After this, we went to Enterprise bowling alley in Benton.  I was glad to see that the bowling alley was nice and a non-smoker environment.  We played a few rounds of bowling.  I feel like it has been forever since we have gone bowling (in truth it has been over a year).  I did my normal average game and even pulled off a strike once.  John did not do as well as he usually does but he is blaming it on the ball.  The bowling alley was full of young high school kids and had glo-bowling.  I even won a game of table hockey.  We then went back to our house and played a few games of rummikub.  In all, it was a great date night mostly because we got to talk and do something different.  I cannot wait for our next date.

The Ghastly Vet Visit

A few weeks ago I took my cats to get their yearly vet visit.  They have had visits in the past, but ever since they had a bad experience getting neutered they have been terrified of visiting the vet.  This time we had some serious problems.  Jasper cried in the car the whole time, hissed and growled during the whole examination ( I would too if you stuck a thermometer up my rear), and finally got through his shots. Javan on the other hand has decided that as soon as he enters the vet's office he will now be a rabid crazy cat.  He attacks, bits, hisses, runs around the room, sheds hair in clumps, and acts like he is dying.  Javan has also decided that since I took him there I am no longer allowed to get near him without being attacked and bitten also.  I felt bad for Javan who is going crazy and I feel bad for the veterinarian and his assistant who have to wear thick gloves and try to use a blanket to hold Javan down and not get bitten.  So the visit was horrible and after 10 minutes of madness I decide that we will take Javan home and try it again another day.  The vet decides that Javan needs valium to help with his anxiety, and so before I take him in for his next visit I drug him with a full pill.   In the car Javan was so sweet purring and loving on me.  As soon as I took him into the vet office, he goes crazy again. This time however the pill did not allow him to have as much energy and after a few minutes the vet gave Javan his yearly shots while holding him down under some blankets.  I was really excited to have his shots over with, but I also talked the vet into giving Javan a 3 year rabies vaccine so I won't have to take him in for shots for a few years-yeah.  They are both healthy with Jasper weighing 16 pounds ( I know he is a big cat), and Javan weighing around 10.  Oh the adventures of having pets.